MICHALEK SHINES AS MALLARDS BLANK RUSH

(MOLINE, IL) – Steve Michalek stopped all 37 shots towards his net, helping power his Quad City Mallards side to a 4-0 win over the Rapid City Rush on Wednesday night.

Quad City jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, scoring in each side of the frame. With 3:54 gone by in the first, Matt Carey finished a two-on-one play with Kevin Henderson, beating Rush net-minder Sam Marotta to give the Mallards a 1-0 advantage (Henderson and Mike Monfredo recorded the assists). Miles Koules doubled his team’s lead to 2-0 with 6:01 remaining in the period when the puck came free to the high slot of the Rush defensive zone and he fired it by Marotta (Guillaume Gelinas and Sam Warning registered the assists).

Quad City tripled its advantage to 3-0 with 3:33 gone by in the second. Raphael Bussieres was all alone in the high slot when a pass from Matt Neal came to him, finishing by Marotta for the 3-0 lead (Neal and Kyle Follmer helped on the goal). Shortly after Bussieres scored, Mikhail Stefanovich was awarded a penalty shot after he was hauled down on a breakway towards the Mallards net, but his attempt on the penalty shot was unsuccessful.

Late in the game, the Mallards were awarded a 5-on-3 power play after Lindsay Sparks was called for tripping and Dan O’Donoghue was assessed “2 and a 10” for disputing the call. Just 33 seconds after the minors were called, Mike Monfredo knocked a loose rebound in front of Marotta to expand the Mallards lead to 4-0 (Gelinas notched his second assist, while Brassart earned his first on the goal). With 5:04 left in the game, the Rush earned their only power play, four-minute double-minor assessed to Mike Monfredo, but the Rush could not break the dam of Steve Michalek. He held on for his second shutout of the season, stopping all 37 Rush shots in what was eventually a 4-0 victory for the Mallards.

Sam Marotta stopped 32 of 36 Quad City shots, falling to 3-7-0 on the season.

The Rush rematch the Mallards on Friday night, with puck drop slated for 6:05 p.m. MST.

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